Owls in the Night
by Meridianpony
Summary: A mysterious figure had been showing up again and again in Central City- a figure with two glowing orange eyes, knives with owls carved into them, and armor covering it's body. Wally couldn't help but be curious. He was determined to find out who the figure was... even if it was the last thing he did. Court of Owls AU, might expand on this further after Luthor's Assassin is done
1. Chapter 1

The first time Wally saw the figure, it was from a long ways away, and it was late at night. The only thing he could make out was a dim form, and it was only because he had his goggles on that he saw the faint outline at all. It was perched on the top of an apartment building, surveying the city.

Wally puzzled over the figure for a second, wondering who it was and why it was up there, but before he could even consider investigating he recieved a call from his mentor to come and help put a stop to one of Mirror Master's crazy schemes. He glanced at the apartment building once more, but the figure wasn't there anymore.

Had he imagined it?

But he couldn't spend any more time puzzling over a shadowy figure- Kid Flash was needed. He pushed his curiosity aside.

He had more important things to worry about than a distant figure on a rooftop in Central City.

**_Line Break_**

The second time Wally saw him, it was a _lot _closer up.

He was on patrol (as Kid Flash, of course) and heard someone scream. It was about 10 at night, and Wally had been about to call it a day (he had a huge test the next morning), but he wasn't about to let someone get hurt because he wanted to get some extra sleep.

It only took him 4.4 seconds to dash across the eleven blocks between him and the source of the noise. Flash could have done it in 2.7, but Wally was still pretty pleased with himself.

A young women, probably in her early twenties, was standing on the sidewalk under a streetlamp, her eyes wide and her body trembling. Wally ran straight up to her, looking around for the trouble- but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

That was odd. Normally 4.4 seconds was easily enough time for Wally to get there before the criminal could escape.

He skidded to a stop in front of the women.

"What happened? Are you alright, ma'am?" he asked respectfully, as his uncle Barry had taught him. She nodded, and bent down to pick up her purse. Until that point, Wally hadn't even noticed it was there. The strap had been slashed in two.

"I was just walking down the street when this figure attacked me! It had a knife, so I screamed... I thought it was going to kill me, but all it did was cut my purse strap. And then it didn't even take the purse, it just grabbed my wallet, took my cash, dropped the purse, and _ran!"_

She sounded confused, but relieved. Wally frowned- that was odd. The thief had taken the time to simply grab cash _and _had managed to get out of sight before a speedster got there? That was almost impossible!

"Which way did he go?" he said hurriedly, and she pointed down the road. Wally didn't wait to hear her reply, he sped away.

Zipping down the street, he saw a shadow whip around a corner- a small, lithe figure cloaked in darkness. Wally followed as fast as he could, and found himself in a dark alleyway- a dark, _empty _alleyway.

Okay... something was going on. He took a cautious step forward, ready to bolt should something fly out of the shadows to attack him. Nothing did, and Wally found himself frowning in confusion... he could've sworn he saw something come in this alleyway! He _really_ needed more sleep if it had gotten to the point that he was imagining things...

But just as he was about to leave, a sudden clattering noise from above made him tilt his head back and look skyward.

The figure was scaling the fire escape with incredible efficiency, jumping two, even _three_ floors up at a time! Flipping and rotating, and basically using the fire escape as a jungle gym, it got to the top of the building, and Wally saw a flash of green clenched tightly in it's hand.

"Hey!" he yelled, because the figure had stolen that money, and Wally wasn't about to let him get away with that without at least trying to slow him down. To his surprise, the figure actually _did _turn in response to his shout.

Glowing orange eyes peered down at him through the darkness, and chilled Wally to the bone. The figure seemed to be glaring at him, and then it raised a hand- a knife soared down from above. Wally darted aside automatically, but there had been no need too. It stuck in the ground a good seven inches from where his foot had been even before he moved. The figure hadn't been trying to injure him, the knife had merely been a distraction!

When he looked up again, the figure was gone. Wally picked up the knife and inspected it the best he could in the darkness, running his fingers over the hilt- there was a design in it, but he couldn't quite tell what.

He headed back to the street and stood under a lamp-post. On the handle, expertly carved, was an owl, with its wings spread wide and it's talons outstretched. Wally spent another minute studying the design before he tucked the blade away and returned home.

His curiosity was officially piqued. There was something... different about this thief. And no, it wasn't the orange eyes...

The next morning, his uncle Barry asked him how patrol had gone- and something told Wally not to speak of the shadowy figure and the knife. He couldn't tell why, he couldn't explain it. It just felt... wrong to tell anyone else about it.

So he didn't.

**A/N: I really love the Court of Owls storyline... In fact I was reading the Batman: Night of the Owls story arc the other day and this just appeared in my head. If I hadn't written it down, I would have forgotten it. Anyway, does it interest anyone? I might expand on it a lot more after I finish Luthor's Assassin. In fact, it might be my next big project if you guys like it enough. In case you couldn't tell, Court of Owls AU. And I'm not revealing anything about who the shadowy figure is if you don't know... nor am I answering any _other _questions about the timeline or why the figure is stealing stuff... except I will say the figure's eyes aren't really orange. Y'all just better hope I don't forget the storyline I have planned out while I work on Luthor's Assassin! :) So, let me know if you'd like to read more!**


	2. Chapter 2

Wally was completely caught off guard the next time he encountered the strange figure.

He and his Uncle Barry were on patrol as usual, and a sudden explosion had them both dashing towards the source of the sound. They arrived just in time to see a group of thugs racing out of the Central City bank, bags of money clutched in their hands.

"Let's go, Kid!" Flash shouted, streaking ahead. Wally felt a surge of pride as he followed his uncle, zipping towards the thieves.

There were five men total, and Wally plucked the sacks of money out of their hands before they even had the chance to blink, and deposited them back into the safe. By the time he returned, two men were already on the ground, unconscious, and he watched as his uncle decked the third crook, sending him skidding across the sidewalk.

The fourth and fifth men were making a run for it, and Wally yelled blur of words at his uncle: "I'llgetthemuncleBarrydon'tworryaboutitI'llberightbackyoushouldprobablytiethoseguysupawesomeseeyalater!" before racing off after them. His Uncle didn't follow him or make any move to stop him, and it made Wally grin in happiness.

Uncle Barry _trusted _him.

He entertained himself for a split second by rushing ahead of the thugs and standing directly in their way. They froze in horror, staring at him, before the first one relaxed a bit.

"Aw, it ain't the Flash," he growled. "It's just the Baby Flash. What are you gonna do, boy?

Wally just grinned at him, carefully concealing his anger. _That_ had been a mistake.

He darted forwards and knocked the guy's legs out from under him easily, then grabbed him by the arm. Using his speed, he began whirling the poor man around in the air, and then he let go. The man went flying, and as he smashed into a wall, money burst everywhere- it looked like he had hidden one of the bags underneath his coat jacket before the two speedsters had intervened. Wally scowled at his motionless form.

The final man was running again, in the opposite direction, and Wally sighed, shaking his head.

"You guys never learn, do you," he said, tackling the fleeing thief and knocking him out with a swift punch to the chin.

He grinned in success, looking down at the unconscious man on the cement by his feet. He couldn't help but feel proud- Uncle Barry had trusted him to do this alone, and he'd succeeded!

A sudden clatter of coins behind him, however, made him whip around.

For a moment, he thought that the thief had woken up and was trying to gather up the money on the ground- but then he realized that the figure crouched in front of him was too small, too lithe... and besides, the man's unconscious form was still sprawled out on the ground near the wall.

The figure's head snapped up, too... and Wally gasped in surprise.

It was the boy. The thief from earlier, that had somehow been stealthy enough to avoid him, the one that had thrown the owl knife at him.

The one with the glowing orange eyes.

And he was standing right there, barely nine feet away from where Wally was right now.

Wally let his eyes take in all the details at superspeed, before the thief could react. Somehow he knew that the thief was going to race away the second he noticed Wally had caught him, and he was right- he could see the figure moving, although it looked extremely slow with Wally using his superspeed.

Now that he was closer, he could see that the mysterious figure wasn't some strange, creepy demon. It was a kid- a boy, who looked barely eleven years old. He could see messy, ebony hair on the boy's head, and glimpses of olive-toned skin.

His eyes weren't really orange, either- instead, they were covered by a pair of orange-tinted goggles. Scraps of black cloth clung to the eyepieces, and it seemed like the goggles had once been part of something larger, like a facemask of some sort.

His outfit was black, too- black to match the shadows. He looked almost like a ninja. Dark black gauntlets covered his hands and forearms, and Wally could see deep scratches and dents in both of them. A belt of knives was slung across his chest, each with the same owl design that Wally recognized from before. The boy was very small and skinny, but as Wally allowed himself to slow down, he could see the fluid motions he made as he flipped over Wally's head and disappeared into the shadows above.

He was in too much shock to attempt to follow him.

What had the boy even been doing, anyway?

Wally glanced down at the bills and coins scattered on the ground, and realized with a jolt that a chunk of it was now gone.

_Crap._

**___Line Break_  
><strong>

The fourth time he saw him... well, their exchange was a lot different.

He was walking to a convenience store to pick up some cough drops (his mom had gotten a terrible cough earlier that day) in the late afternoon, in his civilian clothes. Luckily they were only a couple blocks away from the store, and it wasn't that bad of a walk. He was about halfway there, and passing a dark alley, when he spotted it- a streak of blood on the sidewalk, headed towards the alley.

He was_ Kid Flash, _of course he had to go check it out.

As he inched down the alley, he heard someone groan up ahead, and quickened his pace. He didn't run (he was still in his civvies), but at the very back of the alley he found him.

The little thief. The boy who could blend into shadows. The one with the owl knives.

With a gaping hole in his side.

Wally gasped and leaped forwards without hesitation, kneeling besides the fallen boy and pressing his hands to the wound to try and stop the bleeding. It felt sticky and hot under his fingers, and he pressed down harder. A terrible sound was torn out of the boy's throat, and Wally winced- how on earth was he still conscious? Or even _alive?_

He needed to get help... and fast.

Wally pressed against the wound harder, willing the blood to stop flowing. It was a silly idea, and he knew it, but for a moment it almost seemed to be working... it seemed like the bloodflow was slowing. Then Wally shook his head- of course it wasn't! They needed to get to a hospital, as fast as possible!

Wally made up his mind. He scooped the boy up and was about to zip away when suddenly the boy thrashed in his arms. Wally was knocked off balance, and they both tumbled to the ground. He winced as he heard a thud next to him and scrambled up, ready to try again, but before he could, orange-tinted eyes met his own, and somehow Wally got the feeling that he was being glared at.

He could see more crimson liquid running down the boy's side, and persisted, trying to get closer.

"Please, you're hurt," Wally growled, slightly desperate as the boy shoved him away angrily. "You need help!" The boy only shook his head, and backed away even more. Wally wanted to scream- he would_ die _from that wound without help!

Suddenly, the boy stiffened, and threw his head back. Wally saw his face twist into a grimace, and his small back arched upwards. Wally gasped in horror, but as soon as it had begun, it stopped, and the boy was completely still.

"Hey," he said, cautiously moving forwards again. "Hey, what was..."

He trailed off in shock.

The gaping wound in the boy's side was gone.

It had completely disappeared.

Wally felt his mouth drop open.

"Wha... wha- _what_?"

The boy didn't answer him, and climbed to his feet. His covered eyes stared into Wally's, and then the boy leaped into the air. He grabbed the edge of a fire escape and flipped up to the top of the building.

He didn't look back, and disappeared.

Wally slowly stood from where he was kneeling in the middle of the dark alley. If it wasn't for the puddle of blood at his feet, Wally wouldn't have believed that the encounter had even happened!

Something was odd about that boy... the tiny owl thief. Was he a meta? Did he have superpowers? Why did he steal money from people?

Wally was determined to figure out the mystery.

**A/N: Yeah, I know these chapters are short. I'm doing it on purpose.**

**I'm actually really excited for this story, even though updates are going to be SUPER slow until I have Luthor's Assassin finished. That story is my main priority. But anyway... yeah, I updated this one! Happy late thanksgiving, Y'all!**


End file.
